


Decaytale

by Decaytale



Category: Decaytale (AU), Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Drama ahoy, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-30
Updated: 2018-05-28
Packaged: 2019-02-23 23:11:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13200588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Decaytale/pseuds/Decaytale
Summary: A world where monsters won the war and humans were cast out to am island. The humans need to scavenge and kill to survive.





	1. One More Day

**Author's Note:**

> This is my own Undertale AU. hopefully you all enjoy it.

The wind had woken her up.

It was mighty gusts of wind; the sort that made the hut creak and made a haunting whistle through the spaces between buildings. The other children in the shared space were still fast asleep on their thin woven mats. Frisk got up slowly, sneaking towards the door and peeking outside. There were no candles lit in the hut the caretaker stayed in, so, sure the woman was fast asleep, she crept out into the night.

Inky black consumed the small village. Normally the bright stars and moon would provide some light but, when frisk looked up, she could see them being consumed by bubbling storm clouds blowing in from the ocean. It wasn’t that uncommon. Storms often came in very suddenly on the island. Out in the distance she could see a bit of the mainland. It was hard to see so far away, but she could make out the towering cliffs along one side, along with what she thought was a large waterfall, illuminated in a bright flash of lightning.

Thunder crashed loudly, consuming any other sound there might have been.

Frisk carefully picked her way down towards the beach. Several boats were a safe distance away from the ocean. She spotted one that leaned against a tree and decided to take shelter under it when she felt the first drops starting to fall, watching as a torrent of rain came in. It looked like a wall of water and she could see its progress as it swept across the land. Even under her boat, the wind that blew in sprayed frisk with water. She gasped and tensed up at the sudden cold spray, sighing a bit. This was a stupid idea. Everyone would know she snuck out if she was soaked in the morning…

Despite the risk and the inevitable trouble if she was found out, it was worth it. The rain smelled nice and the crashing of the waves was a sound she had always adored. She preferred the rain during the day though, when the light peeking through clouds would make the raindrops dazzle. And then there were always the occasional rainbows. She never got to stop to look at those for long, but she was sure they were magic. Rain at night was alright too, though, even if she would get in trouble for being out at this time.

Maybe that was a good thing though.

Maybe they wouldn’t let her go scavenging tomorrow if she got in trouble…

It was wishful thinking, but she knew she’d be forced to go.

Scavenging was the most important job to the survival of her people… but it terrified her so much, especially now. Abandoning her shelter, she walked out towards the beach, careful not to step too far and into the rough waters. Along the very edges of the beach were half dead trees with gnarled branches. A few branches here and there held charms; simple things made of twig wreaths. Hanging from each wreath, by small lengths of twine, were varying numbers of sticks, each glowing softly from a coating of spores from bio-luminescent mushrooms.

They were markers, beacons of sorts. Each charm was for a child who had gone missing during a scavenge, with the sticks being for their ages. They were hung there in the hopes that they would somehow guide the missing children home… or lure their spirits back to where the belonged. Lately a lot more had been hung than ever before. There were at least three that weren’t there last week. Three didn’t seem like a significant number in a week if it was anything else, but these weren’t anything else.

These were kids.

Children with their entire lives to live and nobody even knew where they were.

Despite the sudden spike in vanishings, she was still going to have to go out tomorrow to start her first week of active training. It was just a part of the process. First came the passive training, consisting of physical training and education. After that was active training; one week where a newbie would go out with a teen about to retire. they would scavenge with their mentor each day to learn any skills that lessons and exercise couldn’t teach…

Most of the others were excited for their first day of active training… Frisk hoped that the storm would keep raging so the ocean would be too dangerous to go.

She just wanted one more day…


	2. Muggy Morning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just another morning on the island, but it's about to be their first day as scavengers so everybody is SUPER excited... well, almost everybody. Frisk's not so into it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Advanced warning. Frisk is bullied for not being a fighter. poor thing

The storm did not last.

By the time morning came, the storm had passed long ago. Frisk could hear everyone else already getting up and beginning to clean. Frisk tried to roll on her side to ignore all of this. It was hot, and the air was muggy, and Caretaker hadn’t even been in to tell them all to get up! She didn’t know why they were all so excited for their first day. She gasped when someone tripped and fell over her, struggling to try to shove them off, yowling when she was pulled up suddenly by a pretty hard grip on her arm.

It was either Anise or Tammy. She could never tell the difference between them. Everyone knew they were twin sisters, but nobody was permitted to discuss families. As far as they were supposed to be concerned, they were all brothers and sisters and the Caretaker was their mother. They lived here together for as long as they remembered.

“What the fuck, Frisk! Why are you wet!?” Yeah… That was Anise. The grip on Frisk’s arm was getting painful and Frisk started to try harder to pull away.

“Let go! It’s nothing!”  Frisk screamed out. Anise was gripping even harder now.

“Tch, you wimp. If you want me to let go, fight me! you won’t, will you?” Anise taunted, pushing Frisk up against a wall and twisting her arm behind her back. She looked for anyone to help. Toby and Flint were watching, but both of them were laughing. Tammy was avoiding looking at her, not really approving of Anise starting trouble this early, but not caring to help either way. Demetri chewed the end of his pencil, looking annoyed. He was more likely to speak up, but only when he felt like it.

Serenity stepped up, getting in frisk’s face with an annoyingly fake concerned pout “Aw, look, widdle Fwisky is cwying” She said in a baby voice.

“I-I am not!” Frisk whined. She really wasn’t, but she could feel tears burning in her eyes.

“Figures. You are useless! Just a useless little brat! what, are you gonna cry? Go on! if you aren’t gonna fight you mind as well just cry! Cry baby!” Anise taunted, pushing the side of frisk’s face against the wall and grinding it in a bit. the rough surface made her skin sting. If she didn’t get a scrape, it would at least leave a mark.

“I’m not crying!” Frisk yelled back. it was no good. she could feel the hot tears running down her face despite her best effort to hold back.

“Oh, she totally is! aw, look at the baby cry!” Serenity giggled.

“Cry baby! Cry baby! Cry baby!” Toby and Flint chanted together, rubbing fists near their eyes to tease her more.

“I’m not…” Frisk whimpered. She stopped struggling, just shaking as she was ganged up on.

“You’re nothing but a filthy liar. We can all see you crying!” Anise gloated.

Demetri snapped his book shut “I am TRYING to study! We are about to go out there and, unlike all of you, I actually care to stay away from any dangerous plants.”

“big surprise! Dem wants to study” Toby grumbled

“And did you all forget that if Caretaker comes in here and sees this, she is going to end up yelling at Frisk and we are going to have to wait to leave?” Demetri said, setting his book aside.

“fuck…” Anise sighed and threw frisk down, spitting at her “You got lucky this time.”

Frisk slowly moved to pick herself up, but Serenity knocked her back down with a well placed kick to the ribs, giggling happily before skipping towards the door. “Coast is clear!” she sang out cheerfully “let’s go get cleaned up before Caretaker sees the little worm like this.” She willfully ignored the glare frisk gave her, grabbing a threadbare towel from the pile along with a clean set of plain clothing. Everyone else moved to do the same and leave the hut.

Demetri took a second to grab Frisk by her wrist and drag her upright. She sighed, rubbing the spit off her face. “Thanks Dem…”

“I didn’t do it for you. now shut up and move before we do get caught.” He said, placing his hand on her back and forcing her to start walking. They grabbed their things too, heading to the lake. With the girls heading to one side and the boys to the other, each took time to wash, change their clothing, and wash their night cloths, hanging them on nearby ropes tied across trees. someone would be by later to collect them when they were dry and bring them back to the hut.

Frisk straightened out her shirt, frowning slightly as she followed the other girls to meet the boys. She hated humid days like this. sure she’d been wet all night, but that didn’t mean she liked the feeling. When it was so humid out, it was impossible to feel completely dry. Honestly she would rather be drenched than to just feel mildly damp like this. Frisk was startled when she ran right into Anise, who gave her a shove, knocking her into Tammy who pushed her again.

“Pay attention already, baby.” Anise hissed.

“sorry.” Frisk muttered, wincing and looking down when Anise got in her face

“Damn you’re a wimp… Ugh, we are gonna be late at this rate. Come on.” She ordered, starting to run. The others started running too, pushing Frisk out of the way. She frowned and started walking after them, glad for the time alone.

By the time she was approaching the main building, she could smell a lot of really good things. Usually they just ate a gruel made of water, oats, mushrooms, and some mashed vegetables when they were available. This didn’t smell like gruel though. It smelled absolutely amazing.

Frisk smiled as she headed inside to join everyone else for their meal.


	3. Setting Off

Frisk was disappointed but not shocked to find that there was barely anything left for her. Everyone else had food in front of them that they had grabbed up from the center of the table. There were meats, fruits, vegetables… a wide variety of things that none of them ever got to see for their breakfast. This was a real scavenger breakfast. Much bigger and heartier…

As much of a hassle as it was, meals had always been, and still were, survival of the fittest. Everything was. Everyone else had already laid claim to the best of the food. Frisk took a place at the table, reaching to quickly snatch a large chunk of bread and some of the soft white cheese to smear over it. also managing to find a scrap of meat left. When she went to eat her bread though, someone had reached over and snatched the meat away. She just shook her head and stuck to her bread and cheese. It wasn’t like it was worth fighting over a small scrap of meat.

She quietly sat and ate, watching the others and their fighting. Anise stealing an apple from Toby and getting into a fist fight with him, only to get it stolen by Tammy while neither paid attention. Serenity and Flint were in a vicious fight with each other over a stolen egg, which was splattered over their hands and on the floor, hardly worth fighting over now. Demetri was carefully swiping a few pieces of food from people while they were distracted.

Frisk grabbed some more chunks of the bread, shoving it into her pocket, and took some of the cheese, wrapping it in an old rag and shoving in her other pocket, something to eat later if she needed it. She would take as much as her pockets could carry. Right after the meal they went out to wait for the Caretaker to come with the teens who would be their mentors for the next week. All of them looked angry, bored, frustrated… basically anything but glad to be here.

Being chosen as a Mentor was anything but a good thing. Teenagers were already taking enough of a risk, since at some point the monsters would stop considering them as children and, if they got caught… well, frisk wasn’t sure how they decided who was killed and who wasn’t, but most of them were never seen again. At least, for the children, the worst they would get was a whooping and then they’d turn back up on the island. It wasn’t considered a big deal. 

well, unless they didn’t come back…

It was definitely a big deal when they didn’t come back.

The other group had only been out there for two years and more than half of them were missing. the ones that weren’t missing were terrified and barely bringing anything home. The group home Frisk was in was expected to pick up the slack right away, a big task to fill for the smallest group. Frisk was numb to the world, lost in her thoughts even when someone grabbed her by the back of her neck and dragged her along, the muted voice demanding that she move with the others.

There was a pile of supplies. usual rules. fight for the best things. If you were under-supplied, it was your own fault. It was just the way of the scavenger. The other kids lurched forward for the supplies and, when Frisk didn’t immediately jump into the fight, her mentor grabbed her by the shoulder and shoved her forward into it. Frisk winced as she was immediately kicked in the face while trying to reach for some of the items in the pile.

Eventually she scrambled away from the pile to get away from being hit and kicked, hugging a backpack close to her chest. As she practically crawled away from the others and the empty space where the pile had been, her mentor grabbed her shoulder and dragged her up to her feet.

“Dammit, she said you were the worst in the bunch, but how can you really be this fucking pathetic.” The teen spat. Frisk hugged the bag tighter, shaking a bit and reaching up to touch her nose. It hurt, but it wasn't broken. She was grabbed near the elbow and half dragged away a few paces. “Alright, let's see what you got.”

Frisk nodded and sat. she had scooped whatever she could into her bag. The bag itself was far too big for her, but she would grow into it with time. She pulled out a small kit with a few first aid supplies. She knew she'd need more if she even got a moderately bad injury. She had a survival multitool, which could be an ax, hammer, serrated blade, compass, and a hollow bottom. It had a thin but sturdy rope wrapped around the grip. That find had her mentor nodding approvingly. She had barely managed to get herself a grappling hook. The metal was rusting a little and the rope wasn't in the best state, but it was serviceable until she could find a new one. She had also scooped up several roles of bandages.

Her mentor sighed, telling her it wasn't the best haul, but at least she got something useful. She grabbed her own grappling hook and had frisk watch her put it on, telling her that there were too many moments where fast access to her hook had saved her life. Next she had frisk take a length of the bandaging, looking around a bit and reaching into her own bag to pull out a large hunting knife and quickly shove it into Frisk's hands while nobody looked.

“Don't read into it, brat. I bet the others you'd at least stay alive through training and a knife is important.” She showed frisk how to use a length of bandage to tie the knife on. It was up above frisk's knee, hidden just under the loose pants. She ran Frisk through quickly slipping the hook ropes off “Alright, that's about all we can do now. Come on.”

Despite her mentor's insistence that the knife wasn't supposed to be a sign of kindness, Frisk was still smiling pretty widely. She didn't plan on using the knife, really, but it still felt good to be given anything at all. She hurried to follow the older girl back to the beach that she'd just been to the other night. The boats were already laid out near the water, waiting for them. It was the job of one of the adults of the village to inspect, repair, and get them ready each day.

Frisk could barely see, way out in the distance, the boats from another group. Serenity was agitated at that, shifting from foot to foot “Ugh, they are getting there first!? Frisk, this is all your fault!”

“mine?” Frisk was a bit annoyed. They had decided to bully her in the morning and had taken too long to eat because of their fighting.

“Yes! Yours!” Serenity snapped, punching Frisk's arm pretty hard. Serenity's mentor sighed a bit.

“HEY! Fighting more ain't getting us there any faster. get in the boat.” Serenity grumbled and followed towards one of the boats.

Frisk’s mentor grabbed her shoulder and brought her over to their small boat. one of the others called over “Hey, don’t forget, you can’t protect her or nothing!”

“Yeah, no special treatment!” Another called over, laughing as they started pushing the boat into the water.

Frisk’s mentor grumbled and shoved the boat in before hopping in as well “Yeah, yeah! Fuck off!” she yelled, shoving the oars into Frisk’s hands “Get rowing.”


	4. River Ride

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frisk has a rough ride

The ride was too long and uncomfortable for frisk. She sat there doing all of the rowing while her mentor watched. She was going to have to row most every day from now on, so she had to get used to it either way, but that didn't stop the pain in her arms and back from getting to her. It only made her dread the idea of the trip back even more.

The other boats had gotten way ahead of them by now and frisk could feel her mentor's eyes boring into her even though she kept her eyes firmly locked on her feet. The only time she looked away was to gauge her distance with a peek over her shoulder. The boat swayed slightly as her mentor stood up when they got closer to the main land.

She pointed towards a spot where the ocean flowed into a channel. “see that river? that's where we are going.”

Frisk glanced over her shoulder to see what she was talking about, nodding a little “Yes ma'am.”

“You need to go down there a ways. There are clearings where it'll be easy to leave the boats. Monsters don't usually come to the forest, so it is usually safe.”

“But why can't we just gather resources from the forest?” Frisk asked quietly, looking towards the tall trees and, what was probably, rich land full of things that could be eaten and used. She was startled when she was suddenly smacked along the side of her head.

“Are you fucking dense, or what? Don't you think there's a reason monsters stay the fuck away. it's dangerous out here. Stick to the areas that are already tamed. Never scavenge in the Wilds.”

Frisk frowned a bit as she thought about that, wondering how dangerous it could be… but she had no choice but to listen, at least for now… She carefully navigated the boat towards the river, gasping a bit when the boat lurched a bit and started moving with a hard current flowing inland from the ocean.

“Yeah, it does that. Come on, get ready. We have to get ready. It gets rougher the further down the river we go. Have to get the boat on shore at a safe place or it'll get wrecked.”

“O-okay.” Frisk was left scrambling around as she was given a whole lot of instructions all at once. It would have been nice to be given better training on this part earlier on, but complaining was completely pointless. She could see a few of the others up ahead successfully managing to pull their boats to shore and it, thankfully, didn't look that hard to do.

They got to the clearings and Frisk was sure she'd gotten everything she needed to ready to try to shore the boat. Her mentor didn't really seem concerned with checking. She pointed out a spot “alright, you're on your own for this.” She said, jumping off the boat, managing to land in more shallow water, only up to her knees.

Frisk stood, picking up the rope in her hand and getting ready. At the end of the rope were a few heavy stones. She twirled it to get some momentum going like the others had before flinging it towards a tree, quickly kneeling and still gripping the rope to brace herself for the boat jerking to a stop.

But it didn't stop.

The rope did hit a tree, the rocks wrapping it several times around the trunk, but Frisk had forgotten to secure the rope to the boat and she was yanked forward, slamming her forehead hard into the back of the boat before the rope was pulled from her grip, leaving a bad, bloody rope burn on her palms. She could feel the warm blood trickling down her forehead, but at least she was still awake. Even if her head was pounding right now, it was better than being knocked out. 

That didn't mean the situation was any better though. She was still heading down the hard current in an out of control boat with her main way to secure it left behind. She got up unsteadily and looked around. The water was so fast that she couldn't even see her mentor anymore. She opened her bag and looked inside, trying to consider her options. The only good option was her grappling hook, but she was going so fast. There was no way the worn rope would hold up.

There was always the option of jumping off the boat, but boats were hard to make, and she’d get in serious trouble if she destroyed one, especially so soon… besides, the water was moving too fast. She looked down at the frothing white water pushing the boat along… no way. she wouldn’t even try that.

As she looked down into the water though, her choice in that was taken away. The boat was thrown up against a rock and capsized, sending Frisk flailing into the water. She could feel her blood run cold as she toppled in.. She couldn’t even figure out which way was up at this point. Naturally, all of the children were taught to swim from an early age, and Frisk was a pretty strong swimmer, but it was different now. Nothing could have really prepared her for a situation like this and no matter how hard she tried she couldn’t find her bearings and get above the water.

She tried to hold her breath, but all the air was knocked out of her when her back was slammed against a rock. It took all she had to resist the burning urge to try to gasp for air after the blow, but the water was already dragging her away from the rock. She desperately scrambled to try to grab onto it to get out, or at least get some air, but the water crashed against her body and up into her face. Her fingers were cold and numb and the rock was mossy and hard to grip.

Just as she was about to lose her grip, something suddenly hauled her out of the water by her bag. Frisk coughed and sputtered, doing her best to gasp in as much air as she could. As her blurry vision slowly cleared, she looked in front of her. Her chest tightened up and she froze. In front of her was the pure white face of a skeleton monster, deep cracks webbing across its face from its chin to its forehead, especially deep around the right eye socket. That one was dark but the other blazed with a bright light.


	5. Sans

Frisk was shaking and started panicking in the skeleton's grip. She flailed and screamed out, afraid. She didn't want to go missing! She didn't want to get beaten either, but she really didn't want to go missing. She started begging, pleading that she hadn't taken anything, so shouldn't be beaten or anything and that she'd go back on her own. She barely processed that the skeleton was speaking to her.

“woah… woah. kid, relax… relax, i ain't gonna hurt you. look at me, okay… i won't fight you if you don't try anything against me, understand?” he asked, staring at her intensely. Frist nodded frantically, still trying to steady her breathing out.

The skeleton stepped away from the water and slowly set her down on her feet. She muttered something to him, very softly.

“what?” he asked, concerned.

“M-my boat… they are gonna… gonna hurt me if I lost my boat… I have to find it.” Frisk said, crying. It seemed helpless though. The water had been so fast.

“relax. it got caught on some rocks over there. we can get it, okay? you are gonna be fine.” His one eye flicked down “ah geez kid… you're bleeding. let me see.” He said, gently holding out his hand. She jumped back a bit out of instinct, but when he didn't forcibly grab her, she slowly held her hand out and let him examine it. He kept one hand in a pocket of his shirt.

He tipped his chin “do you have anything in your bag that i can use?” he asked. He was keeping his voice very soft, trying not to scare her.

“oh! I uh… I have… a… a medical kit.” He grinned a bit

“well hey, look at you. smart kid. get it out for me.” She nodded and took her hand back to dig in her bag and get the kit out, opening it.

“i don't think you need stitches. it doesn't look too deep. i'm just gonna clean it and wrap it up for you. shouldn't hurt one bit. just hold nice and still for me, alright kiddo?”

Frisk nodded a little, keeping her hand still. He took his hand away from hers to reach into the kit. For some reason he wasn't taking his other hand out of this pocket in his shirt. She kept her eyes fixed on it, wondering if he had a weapon or something in there. It was putting her more on edge, but he never moved it. He gently dabbed some rubbing alcohol on her palm and wrapped a bandage around it. Everything was done slowly and gently.

Once her hand was bandaged and safe he sighed, rubbing his hand along the back of his skull slightly. “alright kiddo, come with me. i know a place that's safe to cross the river.” He stood up, helping her up too. She kept a hold on his hand, which he didn't seem to mind, just holding her hand and walking with her down a slightly worn path through tall grass and bushes. The silence felt odd. It wasn't exactly uncomfortable, but not comfortable either.

“so….. yer a weird one…” He muttered with a tense laugh.

“Yeah, I know… but when I'm not being called a freak, they call me Frisk.” She said back. The skeleton cracked a wide grin and started laughing. The laugh was infectious, and Frisk started giggling right back.

“well, what a coincidence. when i ain't being called a freak, people call me sans.” This was met with another bit of laughter between the two and they fell into friendly chatter.

“How are you a freak, sir?”

“geez, kid, don't call me sir. heh. it's just sans, okay? and these cracks ain't really normal.” He said, like it was completely obvious.

“oh, I thought it was for something else. I don't think they look that bad.”

“… thanks" he sounded strangely relieved “what about you, kid?”

“I don't like to fight. We are all supposed to fight. I should have dusted you, you know, if I was following rules…. But I really don't want to fight.”

“well hey, that makes you okay in my books, freak.”

Frisk laughed again, bumping up against his side “You too, freak.”

“You can't talk to me like that, freak.” He bumped her right back

“Who's gonna stop me, freak" and she bumped him again.

Sans laughed and ruffled her hair slightly “you gotta be at least my height to sass me like that, freak. man, people would think i was nuts if i told them i was hanging around a human.”

“Probably! That just means you can't tell on me.” Frisk said. Sans smiled and held his wrist up to his forehead

“oh no! my secret plan to tattle on a brat has foiled! woe is me!” he said dramatically. Frisk scrunched her nose at him, looking ahead to see the large log that was across the river.

“oh, is that where we are crossing?”

“you got it. come on, it isn't hard. if you get afraid you can always crawl across" He said, leading her across. Frisk did end up crawling. The last thing she wanted was to end up in the water again. Luckily the log was wide and sturdy and the river wasn't very wide at this part, so it didn't take long to cross. Sans smiled a bit “see, not hard at all. now, you go see if you can get your boat, freak.”

Frisk smiled and nodded a bit “You aren't coming with me?”

“sorry, but i have places to be. maybe i'll see you around. oh, and kid?”

“Yes?”

“if you see my brother, you don't gotta be afraid. he is a good dude and won't attack you if you don't try to hurt him. just try not to let any of the other brats hurt him, yeah?”

“Okay, I'll do my best.” Sans ruffed her hair up and walked away, leaving her all alone in the woods.

Frisk took a deep breath, following the instructions she'd been given, making her way back up the river until she found her boat. She stopped when she saw her mentor there, already pulling the boat onto shore and cursing under her breath. Frisk backed away slowly, trying to see if she could just creep away and not confront this problem right now.


End file.
